The Ridley Island Industrial Site (at right), at the Port of Prince Rupert, will be ringed by a road, rail and utility corridor that links proposed terminal developments to existing rail and port infrastructure.CNW Group/Prince Rupert Port Authority

Construction has begun on the CA$90-million (US$88 million) Port of Prince Rupert Road, Rail, and Utility Corridor project in British Columbia, Canada.

The project includes construction of five parallel rail tracks, a two-lane roadway and a port-owned power distribution system along an eight-kilometer (five-mile) corridor. This will provide shared-use infrastructure for proposed potash, liquefied natural gas and other terminals on the island. The capital costs of the terminal developments are currently estimated in the billions of dollars. The first phase of the project will be completed in December 2014.

"This project will connect Canada's proven capacity for resource production to growing markets in the Asia-Pacific region and is the largest in Prince Rupert since construction of the Fairview Container Terminal," said Bud Smith, chairman of the board of the Prince Rupert Port Authority. "We are integrating the new terminals into the world-class service and security architecture at the Port of Prince Rupert. Through our increasingly diversified port complex, the Canadian resource sector will be linked to a world of opportunity."

The corridor is being funded jointly by the governments of Canada and British Columbia, who have each contributed CA$15 million (US$14.6 million) and Canadian National and the port authority, who have each committed CA$30 million (US$29.1 million).

Construction of the Road, Rail, and Utility Corridor will employ up to 90 workers during its two-year construction phase. One of the project's contractors is Prince Rupert Constructors, a joint venture between Coast Tsimshian Enterprises, JJM Construction Ltd. and Emil Anderson Construction Inc. The other is Coast Industrial Construction, a partnership between ICON Construction and the Gitxaala Nation.